The poet (who is the speaker in this poem) is a restless, roving man who loves to be in nature and who is stubborn and fatalistic.

During much of the poem, the poet-speaker expresses his love of roving around the world. It is more important to him than love or money, which he says he "seek[s] not." Instead, he states his desire to roam:

Give [me] the face of earth around And the road before me.

His love of nature emerges in the following words:

Give [me] the jolly heaven above And the byway night me. Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river

He shows his stubbornness in his unwillingness to give in and seek a warm fire even when it is winter, and he is very cold. He says:

Not to autumn will I yield, Not to winter even!

Finally, he repeats that he expects a blow to fall, though he doesn't specify what it is. Perhaps it is the death that can come to risk-taking wanderers. Whatever it is however, he states that when it comes he will accept it as his fate:

Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o'er me